The beauty of all this is that it exists. What happens – and naturally so – is that we become misplaced. Fortunately, the mis-taking is only in our mind! We misplace our connections, our heritage in Here. We lose our balance, reaching and grasping on tippy toes at ideas and ideals that glitter like Christmas tree decor. We dream dreams, and imagine Santa Claus. Of course, when we grow up, we give up those childish things right? Or do we transform Santa, lose the red suit, get a haircut, drop a little baggage and slip into our new BMW life, or fight a warriors war or fly off to romantic Rome and Paris – all in our mind? Without leaving our living room, our flights of fancy, fueled on high octane expectations, carry us up, up and away. Away from this to anyplace but here, anytime but now. And so it happens – as it must in this human journey – and we move through this life we call “ours” in our mind.

That’s not a bad thing, of course; life follows its own trajectory ,with or without our co-operation. And to the degree that we disagree with its course, we suffer. Fortunately, most of the suffering is psychological suffering; a mind-made travel plan that never quite gets us away from here. Still, we live in constant craving, in an eternal haze of Hope. We expect that what we believe in at the time will be at least something we can label as “good”…or preferably,“ better.” Or better yet, “Best!” We sit in the cafe-of-our-mind, huddle over private and national dilemmas, and absently stir more skeptical sugar n’ soured cream into our Reality dream. Even our depression is dreamed – down rather then up!

To return to the beginning of this little story, the beauty of all this is that it is not real. Our mind can never tell us what this world is. Or what will or will not happen next. It creates your world in exactly the same way as our national media; its people and places are virtually and actually, uninhabited because uninhabitable. We may think we live there, but there’s nothing there! Nothing of substance; nothing actual.

The good news is that it’s all OK! This awareness that we all are is constantly changing positions. In our minds, we constantly zoom in and out of the spectacle before us. We produce our own network news, our cultural and personal interpretation about what’s going on, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s kinda entertaining, isn’t it? The conflict, and the resulting suffering, occurs when we believe it’s true.

The way out is the way in, of course. We start with a gentle recognition of the things we know are real and true. Actual, constant things like Love and the beauty of it’s existence despite our seeming search for it. Things like Grace that opens the doors of our perception. Things like this Truth that we deeply realize before we think about it. Things like this innate Wisdom we are. Things that are real.

Things that we are afraid we already know.

We fear the truth because it seems to threaten all that we need, want and imagine is true. We want to believe what we believe, rather than actually accept and embrace simple reality. A reality that ,if accepted fully, releases us from any and all pretensions, any and all aspirations, any and all personal qualities, any and all identities. We are freed to live in the truth of our aware existence – that place that rests.